Carolina Advances To Finals With Win Over Boston College

Durham, N.C. – No. 16 North Carolina will be making its 12th appearance in the ACC Championship title game on Sunday afternoon after defeating Boston College 13-5 on Saturday. The Tar Heels will take on the winner of the Georgia Tech and NC State semifinal on Sunday, May 26 at 12 p.m. The game can be seen on ESPN2.

Michael Busch went 4-for-5 at the plate with a double, a two-run home run and four runs scored to pace the Tar Heels. Ike Freeman, Danny Serretti and Dallas Tessar also recorded multi-hit and multi-RBI games for the Heels.

North Carolina wasted no time in getting on the board as they took the 2-0 lead in the first inning. After back-to-back walks for Dylan Harris and Michael Busch, Aaron Sabato moved both runners to scoring position with a ground out to second base before Danny Serretti brought home Harris with his own ground out to second base. Ike Freeman doubled the lead with a single to left field to score Busch to make it 2-0.

Boston College singled through the left side of the infield with a runner on first and second to cut the lead in half as Boston College scored its first run of the game.

Carolina scratched together two more runs in the third inning to take a 4-1 lead. After leading off the inning with a double, Michael Busch scored on a wild pitch to make it 3-1 before the Heels loaded the bases with no outs. Ashton McGee picked up the RBI on a sacrifice fly to centerfield, but the Heels stranded the other runners.

In the top of the fourth inning, North Carolina completed the routine FF3-2-6-2 double play to keep the Eagles off the scoreboard. Michael Busch caught the ball in foul territory behind first base, fired a ball home to get a runner tagging from third but he stopped halfway, so Martorano threw to second to catch the runner tagging from first base who was safe on the tag and then Serretti fired the ball home to catch the runner trying to score.

With the bases loaded and two outs and two strikes in the bottom of the fifth inning, Dallas Tessar cleared the bases with a single to left field to give the Heels a 7-1 lead.

Boston College responded with four runs in the sixth inning to make it 7-5.

The Tar Heels answered immediately with three runs of their own to make it 10-5. Seretti broke the inning open with a triple down the right field line to score Busch and Sabato before Freeman singled to score Serretti for his second RBI of the game.

Boston College loaded the bases in the top of the seventh inning, but Hansen Butler picked up the third out with a fly ball to left field to keep the Heels ahead, 10-5.

Michael Busch put the exclamation point on the evening with a two-run home run to left field and over the blue monster to increase the Heels' lead to 13-5.

North Carolina is now 23-2 when scoring in the first inning this season and 26-6 when scoring first.

Michael Busch extended his reached base streak to a career best, and team best, 31 games with a walk in the first inning.

Michael Busch collected his first four-hit game of the season on Saturday against Boston College.

Aaron Sabato singled in the third inning to extend his reached base streak to 21 consecutive games. He has at least one hit in 11 of his last 12 games and 9 multi-hit games in that span as well.

Dallas Tessar had just two RBIs coming in to the game against Boston College, and he matched his season total with one swing of the bat in the fifth inning with a two RBI single to give UNC a 7-1 lead. UNC is now 7-1 in games that Dallas Tessar has started.

This will be the 12th ACC Championship title game appearance for North Carolina. UNC has won 6 of its previous 11 appearances (1982, 1983, 1984, 1990, 2007, 2013).

This will be the first title game appearance since 2017 when UNC lost to Florida State 7-3.

The last time UNC was in the ACC Championship game in Durham was in 2013, when the Tar Heels captured their sixth ACC Championship. In 2013, the Heels also played back-to-back extra-inning games.

Win: North Carolina, Hansen Butler (3-0)

Loss: Boston College, John Witkowski (1-1)

North Carolina will face the winner of the Georgia Tech and NC State semifinal on Sunday, May 26 at 12 p.m. in the ACC Championship Final.